Investigating soil moisture sensitivity to precipitation and evapotranspiration errors using SiB2 model and ensemble Kalman filter

Accurate soil moisture information is useful in agricultural practice, weather forecasting, and various hydrological applications. Although land surface modeling provides a viable approach to simulating soil moisture, many factors such as errors in the precipitation can affect the accuracy of soil moisture simulations. This paper examined how precipitation rate and evapotranspiration rate affect the accuracy of soil moisture simulation using simple biosphere model with and without data assimilation through ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF). For each of the two variables, seven levels of relative errors (?20, ?10, ?5, 0, 5, 10 and 20 %) were introduced independently, thus a total of 49 combined cases were investigated. Observations from Wudaogou Hydrology Experimental site in the Huaihe River basin, China, were used to drive and verify the simulations. Results indicate that when the error of precipitation rate is within 10 % of the observations, the resulting error in soil moisture simulations is less significant and manageable, thus the simulated precipitation can be used to drive hydrological models in poorly gauged catchments when observations are not available. When the error of evapotranspiration rate is within 20 % of the observations, which is partly caused by model structural and parameterization errors, its impact on soil moisture simulation is less significant and can be acceptable. This study also demonstrated that the EnKF can perform consistently well to improve soil moisture simulation with less sensitivity to precipitation errors.     

Structure in fluctuations of large-scale soil moisture climate due to external random forcing and internal feedbacks

Large-scale fields of soil moisture are forced by atmospheric precipitation and radiative forcing. When these forcing factors are themselves influenced by surface and soil moisture processes, the result is a nonlinear land-atmosphere system with inherent feedback mechanisms that may strongly modulate variability in climate. Given such feedbacks, simple randomness in the forcing factors may be manifested as a complex statistical signature in the surface hydrology. In this paper, we investigate the impacts of non-Gaussian and colored-noise on the probability distribution of soil moisture resulting from the statistical-dynamical land-atmosphere interaction model of Rodriguez-Iturbe et al. (1991). Persistence of hydroclimatologic anomalies as characterized by the correlation time scale of soil moisture is discussed.     

Structure in fluctuations of large-scale soil moisture climate due to external random forcing and internal feedbacks

Large-scale fields of soil moisture are forced by atmospheric precipitation and radiative forcing. When these forcing factors are themselves influenced by surface and soil moisture processes, the result is a nonlinear land-atmosphere system with inherent feedback mechanisms that may strongly modulate variability in climate. Given such feedbacks, simple randomness in the forcing factors may be manifested as a complex statistical signature in the surface hydrology. In this paper, we investigate the impacts of non-Gaussian and colored-noise on the probability distribution of soil moisture resulting from the statistical-dynamical land-atmosphere interaction model of Rodriguez-Iturbe et al. (1991). Persistence of hydroclimatologic anomalies as characterized by the correlation time scale of soil moisture is discussed.     

Configuration of hydrological processes in a steep hillslope through causality analysis of soil moisture measurements

The vertical and lateral profiles of temporal variations in soil moisture are important for understanding the hydrological process along hillside transects. In this study, relationships among measured soil moistures were explored to configure the hydrological contributions of different flowpaths. All the measured soil moistures included a common stochastic structure because rainfall, the hydrometeological driver, is the main factor that determines the soil moisture response feature, and the infiltration process through the topsoil at a shallow depth is also common in all measured soil moisture histories. Therefore, the relationships between the measured series are also affected by both rainfall and topsoil infiltration. The common stochastic structure of the soil moisture series was removed via a prewhitening procedure. A systematic analysis procedure is presented to delineate the exclusive causal relationships among multiple soil moisture measurements. A monitoring system based on multiplexed time domain reflectometry was used to obtain soil moisture time series along two transects on a steep hillslope during the rainy season. The application of the proposed method for monitoring points in two adjacent locations provided 8, 12, 14, and 13, 16, 22 causal relationships for vertical, lateral in parallel, and diagonal directions, respectively, along the two transects. The point‐based contributions of the internal flowpath can be evaluated as the correlation is normalized in the context of inflow and outflow. The hydrological processes in the soil layer, vertical flow, lateral flow, downslope recharge, and return flow were quantified, and the relative importance of each hydrological component was determined to improve our understanding of the hydrological processes along the two transects of the study area. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Consistency of precipitation products over the Arabian Peninsula and interactions with soil moisture and water storage

The regional-scale consistency between four precipitation products from the GPCC, TRMM, WM, and CMORPH datasets over the Arabian Peninsula was assessed. Their macroscale relationships were inter-compared with soil moisture and total water storage (TWS) estimates from AMSR-E and GRACE. The consistency analysis was studied with multivariate statistical hypothesis testing and Pearson correlation metrics for the period from January 2000 to December 2010. The products and GRACE estimates were assessed over a representative sub-domain (United Arab Emirates) with available in situ well observations. Next, geographically temporally weighted regression (GTWR) was employed to examine the interdependencies among the peninsula’s hydrological components. The results showed GPCC-TRMM recording the highest correlation (0.85) with insignificant mean differences over more than 90% of the peninsula. The highest GTWR predictive performance of TWS (R² = 0.84) was achieved with TRMM forcing, which indicates its potential to monitor changes in TWS over the arid peninsular region.     

Estimation of actual evaporation using precipitation and soil moisture records in arid climates

There is little knowledge available about infiltration and evaporation processes in wadi channels in arid regions. This work was conducted to determine the actual evaporation from bare soils in wadi channels in the south-western region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The estimation of soil evaporation is highly dependent on the availability of moisture in the upper layers of alluvial wadis, in which the areal rainfall, flood hydrograph and soil properties play a significant part. The study was conducted by estimating the actual evaporation using soil moisture data, precipitation and runoff depths in a representative basin. The results are compared with potential rates. The actual rates were 1.5 mm/day immediately after a rainy day and then decreased to 0.42 mm/day. The minimum rate was about 0.1–0.2 mm/day during the dry season. The potential rates were about 9.5 mm/day in June and July, decreasing to 3.5 mm/day in December and January.     

Investigating the impact of initial soil moisture conditions on total infiltration by using an adapted double-ring infiltrometer

ABSTRACT

This study presents an adaptation of the double-ring infiltrometer (DRI) device, which allows several infiltration experiments to be conducted at the same location. Hence, it becomes possible to use the DRI method to investigate infiltration behaviour under different initial soil moisture conditions. The main feature is the splitting of the inner ring into two parts. While the lower part remains in the soil throughout the investigation period, the upper part is attached to the lower one just before the infiltration experiment. This method was applied to eight test sites in an Alpine catchment, covering different land-use/cover types. The results demonstrated the applicability of the adapted system and showed correlations between total water infiltration and initial soil moisture conditions on pastures, independent of the underlying soil type. In contrast, no correlation was found at forest sites or wetlands. Thus, the study emphasizes the importance of paying special attention to the impact of initial soil moisture conditions on the infiltration—and consequently the runoff behaviour—at managed areas. Given the differences in the total infiltrated water of between 30 and 1306 mm, consideration of the interplay between initial soil moisture conditions, land-use/cover type, and soil properties in rainfall–runoff models is a prerequisite to predict runoff production accurately.

EDITOR Z.W. Kundzewicz; ASSOCIATE EDITOR not assigned     

Temporal and spatial changes of soil moisture and its response to temperature and precipitation over the Tibetan Plateau

ABSTRACT

The temporal and spatial characteristics of soil moisture over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) were analysed to explore the relative contributions of temperature and precipitation to soil moisture change. Non-significant changes in soil moisture were observed for the TP over the period 1950–2010, while a seasonal cycle was evident, with higher values in summer and smaller values in winter. The soil moisture showed obvious spatial heterogeneity, with higher values in the south than in the north of the TP. The soil moisture fluctuated with time, jointly influenced by precipitation and temperature changes, with precipitation the dominant factor, while temperature regulated the relationship between soil moisture and precipitation. The relative contribution of precipitation to soil moisture changes was over 80%, except for winter in which temperature was the dominant factor, with a relative contribution of more than 70%. Because of the sharp increase in temperature in winter, the uneven spatial distribution of soil moisture over the TP might harm the fragile ecological environment.     

Brixenbach research catchment: Quantification of runoff process proportions in a small Alpine catchment depending on soil moisture states and precipitation characteristics

The Brixenbach valley is a small Alpine torrent catchment (9.2 km², 820–1950 m a.s.l., 47.45°, 12.26°) in Tyrol, Austria. Intensive hydrological research in the catchment since more than 12 years, including a hydrogeological survey, pedological and land use mapping, measurements of precipitation, runoff, soil moisture and infiltration as well as the conduction of rainfall simulations, has contributed to understand the hydrological response of the catchment, its subcatchments and specific sites. The paper presents a synthesis of the research in form of runoff process maps for different soil moisture states and precipitation characteristics, derived with the aid of a newly developed Soil-hydrological model. These maps clearly visualize the differing runoff reaction of different subcatchments. The pasture dominated areas produce high surface flow rates during short precipitation events (1 h, 86 mm) with high rainfall intensity, whilst the forested areas often develop shallow subsurface flow. Dry preconditions lead to a slight reduction of surface flow, long rainfall events (24 h, 170 mm) to a dominance of deep subsurface flow and percolation.     

Effects of soil moisture aggregation on surface evaporative fluxes

The effects of small-scale heterogeneity in land surface characteristics on the large-scale fluxes of water and energy in the land-atmosphere system has become a central focus of many climatology research experiments. The acquisition of high resolution land surface data through remote sensing and intensive land-climatology field experiments (like HAPEX, FIFE, and BOREAS) has provided data to investigate the interactions between microscale land-atmosphere interactions and macroscale models. To determine the effect of small scale heterogeneities, the spatially averaged evaporative fraction is analytically derived for spatially variable soil moisture and soil-atmospheric controls on evaporation at low soil moisture. This average evaporative fraction is compared with the evaporative fraction determined using the spatially averaged soil moisture, as if from a lumped, or aggregated, land surface model. Results show that the lumped-model based evaporation will over estimate evaporation during periods of low atmospheric demands (early morning/late afternoon, Winter periods, etc.) and under estimate evaporation during periods of high demand (midday Summer periods.) The accuracy of using ‘effective’ parameters in lumped macroscale models depends on the variability of soil moisture and the sensitivity of the soil-vegetation system to low soil moisture.     

Towards the estimation root-zone soil moisture via the simultaneous assimilation of thermal and microwave soil moisture retrievals

The upcoming deployment of satellite-based microwave sensors designed specifically to retrieve surface soil moisture represents an important milestone in efforts to develop hydrologic applications for remote sensing observations. However, typical measurement depths of microwave-based soil moisture retrievals are generally considered too shallow (top 2–5 cm of the soil column) for many important water cycle and agricultural applications. Recent work has demonstrated that thermal remote sensing estimates of surface radiometric temperature provide a complementary source of land surface information that can be used to define a robust proxy for root-zone (top 1 m of the soil column) soil moisture availability. In this analysis, we examine the potential benefits of simultaneously assimilating both microwave-based surface soil moisture retrievals and thermal infrared-based root-zone soil moisture estimates into a soil water balance model using a series of synthetic twin data assimilation experiments conducted at the USDA Optimizing Production Inputs for Economic and Environmental Enhancements (OPE³) site. Results from these experiments illustrate that, relative to a baseline case of assimilating only surface soil moisture retrievals, the assimilation of both root- and surface-zone soil moisture estimates reduces the root-mean-square difference between estimated and true root-zone soil moisture by 50% to 35% (assuming instantaneous root-zone soil moisture retrievals are obtained at an accuracy of between 0.020 and 0.030 m³ m⁻³). Most significantly, improvements in root-zone soil moisture accuracy are seen even for cases in which root-zone soil moisture retrievals are assumed to be relatively inaccurate (i.e. retrievals errors of up to 0.070 m³ m⁻³) or limited to only very sparse sampling (i.e. one instantaneous measurement every eight days). Preliminary real data results demonstrate a clear increase in the R² correlation coefficient with ground-based root-zone observations (from 0.51 to 0.73) upon assimilation of actual surface soil moisture and tower-based thermal infrared temperature observations made at the OPE³ study site.     

Stability analysis of probabilistic soil moisture dynamics

We study the dynamics of soil moisture in the presence of precipitation, evapotranspiration and leakage. This study utilizes a probabilistic framework, and considers the evolution of the probability density function of soil moisture. Our main objective is to assess when the stationary solution is a physically realizable state of the system. Mathematically, this is equivalent to analyzing when the stationary solutions are stable. We show the following main results: For a general rainfall and evapotranspiration model, in a multiple plant framework, the stationary solution is a stable attractor in L₁. However, the stationary solution is at best conditionally stable in L_∞. This has important implications in terms of (1) the validity of moment analysis of the transient problem, (2) the physical importance of transient solutions, and (3) the numerical solution of the stationary problem as a late time solution of the transient problem.     

Simultaneous estimation of surface soil moisture and soil properties with a dual ensemble Kalman smoother

In this paper, a new state-parameter estimation approach is presented based on the dual ensemble Kalman smoother(DEn KS) and simple biosphere model(Si B2) to sequentially estimate both the soil properties and soil moisture profile by assimilating surface soil moisture observations. The Arou observation station, located in the upper reaches of the Heihe River in northwestern China, was selected to test the proposed method. Three numeric experiments were designed and performed to analyze the influence of uncertainties in model parameters, atmospheric forcing, and the model's physical mechanics on soil moisture estimates. Several assimilation schemes based on the ensemble Kalman filter(En KF), ensemble Kalman smoother(En KS), and dual En KF(DEn KF) were also compared in this study. The results demonstrate that soil moisture and soil properties can be simultaneously estimated by state-parameter estimation methods, which can provide more accurate estimation of soil moisture than traditional filter methods such as En KF and En KS. The estimation accuracy of the model parameters decreased with increasing error sources. DEn KS outperformed DEn KF in estimating soil moisture in most cases, especially where few observations were available. This study demonstrates that the DEn KS approach is a useful and practical way to improve soil moisture estimation.     

Evaluation of the impact of rainfall on soil moisture variability

The impact of rainfall on the spatial-temporal soil moisture variability is investigated by using a model of the soil moisture dynamics and two rainfall models, the noise-forced diffusive precipitation model and the WGR model. The study shows that the variability of the soil moisture field is impacted during the limited time of the storm period. During the interstorm period, the variability of the soil moisture field is closely related with the soil texture, as supported by the analysis of the Washita '92 data set. As the impact of rainfall on the variability of the soil moisture field is limited to the short time period of precipitation, the role of the rainfall is simplified as a source of water to the soil moisture field without any consideration of its variability and/or organization in space. A simulation study of the soil moisture field temporal evolution also supports this result, i.e. a strong relationship between the soil moisture field and the variability of its medium. Also, larger variabilities of the loss field coefficient result in easier removal of moisture from the soil.     

Assessment of drought vulnerability based on the soil moisture PDF

This paper studies the statistics of the soil moisture condition and its monthly variation for the purpose of evaluating drought vulnerability. A zero-dimensional soil moisture dynamics model with the rainfall forcing by the rectangular pulses Poisson process model are used to simulate the soil moisture time series for three sites in Korea: Seoul, Daegu, and Jeonju. These sites are located in the central, south-eastern, and south-western parts of the Korean Peninsular, respectively. The model parameters are estimated on a monthly basis using hourly rainfall data and monthly potential evaporation rates obtained by the Penmann method. The resulting soil moisture simulations are summarized on a monthly basis. In brief, the conclusions of our study are as follows. (1) Strong seasonality is observed in the simulations of soil moisture. The soil moisture mean is less than 0.5 during the dry spring season (March, April, and June), but other months exceed the 0.5 value. (2) The spring season is characterized by a low mean value, a high standard deviation and a positive skewness of the soil moisture content. On the other hand, the wet season is characterized by a high mean value, low standard deviation, and negative skewness of the soil moisture content. Thus, in the spring season, much drier soil moisture conditions are apparent due to the higher variability and positive skewness of the soil moisture probability density function (PDF), which also indicates more vulnerability to severe drought occurrence. (3) Seoul, Daegue, and Jeonju show very similar overall trends of soil moisture variation; however, Daegue shows the least soil moisture contents all through the year, which implies that the south-eastern part of the Korean Peninsula is most vulnerable to drought. On the other hand, the central part and the south-western part of the Korean peninsula are found to be less vulnerable to the risk of drought. The conclusions of the study are in agreement with the climatology of the Korean Peninsula.     

Influence of soil moisture hysteresis on the functioning of capillary barriers

Previous experimental studies of capillary barriers have identified highly hysteretic soil moisture retention characteristics in the materials used. In this study, numerical modelling is used to analyse the role of soil moisture hysteresis in capillary barrier functioning. Comparisons between published experimental results and model simulations indicate that soil moisture hysteresis was a necessary inclusion in the modelling approach to adequately reproduce pore water pressure distributions and the timing of breakthrough occurrences. Under hypothetical intermittent infiltration and evaporation conditions, the predicted volumetric water content in the moisture retention layer was significantly different for hysteretic and non‐hysteretic models. The hysteresis effect was found to be dependent on the nature of infiltration–evaporation cycling, although the predicted volume of flow through the hysteretic barrier was lower than that of the non‐hysteretic case, regardless of the nature of the cyclic upper boundary conditions. For practical engineering designs, where the water leakage through the barrier is the primary concern, the inclusion of soil moisture hysteresis in numerical modelling is needed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of soil moisture dynamics beneath olive trees

Olive cultivation is a widespread land use in Mediterranean climates. The proper implementation of soil and water conservation practices in groves requires detailed knowledge of the governing hydrological processes. In this work topsoil moisture dynamics under wet and dry conditions and across a small catchment was investigated in the inter row (IR) and directly under the olive tree canopies (UC). We do this using a sensor network (11 stations) and a simple bucket model which was calibrated (June, 2011–2012) and validated (June, 2012–2013). During most of the year the normalized soil moisture contents (s) were greater in the IR than under UC, with an average normalized soil moisture difference of 0.12. The difference between UC and IR normalized soil moisture followed a seasonal pattern, reaching a maximum near 0.30 during spring. An analysis of the normalized soil moisture probability density functions (pdfs) was bimodal, showing characteristic dominant wet and dry soil moisture states, with the highest probability densities for the dry state. Overall the spatial variability of soil moisture was lower UC than in the IR. This was a result of the soil moisture buffering capacity of the canopy with respect to rainfall and evaporation, in addition to observed differences in soil properties. Hourly soil moisture data were successfully modelled (R² > 0.85), both UC and in the IR, yet with the inclusion of a simple formulation for canopy interception for the former. The results provide insight into how olive trees change hydrological processes in their neighbourhood. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaporation of grass under non-restricted soil moisture conditions

Abstract

The behaviour of various formulas for evapotranspiration of grass in Nonrestricted soil water conditions is considered. These are the expressions based on the Penman formula, i.e. “old” Penman, Penman-Monteith, Thorn-Oliver and the version recommended more recently by the FAO. Moreover, the Priestley-Taylor and the Makkink formulas are considered, which are radiation-based. Comparisons are made between daily mean values estimated with these formulas and direct measurements. The latter were collected over grass in the period 1979–1982 in the catchment area of the Hupselse Beek (The Netherlands). It was found that if all required input data were measured, the Priestley-Taylor and the “old” Penman formula yielded the best results. The assumption that soil heat flux can be neglected introduces a systematic and a random error of roughly 5%. The empirical estimates for net radiation from sunshine duration, temperature and humidity appear to perform rather poorly. These estimates improved significantly if solar radiation was measured directly. The empirical expression proposed by Slob (unpublished) that requires incoming solar radiation only as input, provided better results than the other more complicated expressions. Moreover, this study reveals that evaporation of unstressed grass is primarily determined by the available energy, i.e. good evaporation estimates can be obtained by using simply λE = 0.86(R_n ? G). The Makkink method appears to be attractive for practical applications. These findings support the use of Makkink's formula for routine calculations of crop-reference evapotranspiration as has been done by the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute since 1987.     

Identification of optimal soil hydraulic functions and parameters for predicting soil moisture

Abstract

The accuracy of six combined methods formed by three commonly-used soil hydraulic functions and two methods to determine soil hydraulic parameters based on a soil hydraulic parameter look-up table and soil pedotransfer functions was examined for simulating soil moisture. A novel data analysis and modelling approach was used that eliminated the effects of evapotranspiration so that specific sources of error among the six combined methods could be identified and quantified. By comparing simulated and observed soil moisture at six sites of the USDA Soil Climate Analysis Network, we identified the optimal soil hydraulic functions and parameters for predicting soil moisture. Through sensitivity tests, we also showed that adjusting only the soil saturated hydraulic conductivity, K_s , is insufficient for representing important effects of macropores on soil hydraulic conductivity. Our analysis illustrates that, in general, soil hydraulic conductivity is less sensitive to K_s than to the soil pore-size distribution parameter.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Associate editor D. Hughes

Citation Pan, F., McKane, R.B. and Stieglitz, M., 2012. Identification of optimal soil hydraulic functions and parameters for predicting soil moisture. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 57 (4), 723–737.     

Snowmelt runoff and soil moisture dynamics on steep subalpine hillslopes

Snowmelt water supplies streamflow and growing season soil moisture in mountain regions, yet pathways of snowmelt water and their effects on moisture patterns are still largely unknown. This study examined how flow processes during snowmelt runoff affected spatial patterns of soil moisture on two steep sub‐alpine hillslope transects in Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, USA. The transects have northeast‐facing and east‐facing aspects, and both extend from high‐elevation bedrock outcrops down to streams in valley bottoms. Spatial patterns of both snow depth and near‐surface soil moisture were surveyed along these transects in the snowmelt and summer seasons of 2008–2010. To link these patterns to flow processes, soil moisture was measured continuously on both transects and compared with the timing of discharge in nearby streams. Results indicate that both slopes generated shallow lateral subsurface flow during snowmelt through near‐surface soil, colluvium and bedrock fractures. On the northeast‐facing transect, this shallow subsurface flow emerged through mid‐slope seepage zones, in some cases producing saturation overland flow, whereas the east‐facing slope had no seepage zones or overland flow. At the hillslope scale, earlier snowmelt timing on the east‐facing slope led to drier average soil moisture conditions than on the northeast‐facing slope, but within hillslopes, snow patterns had little relation to soil moisture patterns except in areas with persistent snow drifts. Results suggest that lateral flow and exfiltration processes are key controls on soil moisture spatial patterns in this steep sub‐alpine location. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.